1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator having a centrifugal fan-duct assembly, and more particularly, to a refrigerator having a centrifugal fan-duct assembly which is capable of preventing freezing on a cool air passage of a centrifugal fan.
2. Background of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator is a household appliance configured to maintain low temperatures inside a cold storage space and a freezer through the repetition of a refrigeration cycle in which a refrigerant is compressed, condensed, expanded, and evaporated to maintain the freshness of food stored therein.
In general, the refrigerator includes a body partitioned into a cold storage space and a freezer (hereinafter, referred to as “storage room”) in the interior of the refrigerator and doors on both sides of the body, configured to open and close the storage room.
With the improvement in the living standards of people, recently, refrigerators have been increased in size and quality. Accordingly, a side-by-side refrigerator with an enlarged storage capacity, has been widely supplied and used, wherein the inner space of the storage room is partitioned into left and right sides (e.g., the cold storage space and the freezer).
The side-by-side refrigerator has a centrifugal fan and a duct in the storage room configured to transmit cool air generated from an evaporator to the upper and lower sides of the storage room and to reduce the temperature deviation in the interior of the refrigerator in order to keep food in the storage room at a low temperature.
One conventional refrigerator duct assembly having the centrifugal fan is disclosed in Korean Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-0068761 (on Jun. 21, 2006), which will be discussed with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional refrigerator duct assembly 10 includes a fan cover 11 on the upper portion thereof and configured to face a centrifugal fan 17, holes 12 around the peripheral surface of the fan cover 11, and a duct 13 below the fan cover 11. Therefore, when the centrifugal fan 17 rotates, cool air generated from an evaporator (not shown) passes through the duct 13 to the storage room.
The duct assembly 10 has an inclined surface 15 at a portion where a front surface 14 of the duct 13 is connected to the fan cover 11. The inclined surface 15 allows the cool air introduced by the centrifugal fan 17 to gently move along the inclined surface 15 while flowing to the duct 13.
The inclined surface 15 has holes 16 therein, to prevent formation of a small vortex that may be generated on a bent portion where the fan cover 11 and the duct 13 are connected, thereby preventing the formation of frost when the cool air passes through duct 13.
However, in the conventional refrigerator duct assembly 10, frost may be formed on the centrifugal fan 17 itself in high humidity conditions, and the water resulting from a defrosting operation may drain downward along the duct 13.
As a result, the cool air and the defrosted water may cause the duct 13 to freeze, thereby interrupting the flow of the cool air that passes through the duct 13, and decreasing the cooling efficiency. In addition, the discharging holes on the duct 13 may be blocked or restricted with frost, and may undesirably cause the temperature in the interior of the refrigerator to deviate.
Therefore, there is a definite need for the development of a new refrigerator configured to have separate passages for the flow of cool air and the flow of defrosted water in order to prevent freezing in the cool air passage.